Thursday, March 24, 2011

Where Did I Go Wrong?

Not that anyone cares, but Queen Elizabeth I, last of the Tudor line, died on this day in 1603. *sigh* The end of a wonderful yet turbulent and bloodshed-filled era. Is it bad that I'm like "Meh" about the Stuarts? ;-)

My daughter, who is thirteen, has ZERO interest in history. I am shaking my head over it. When I was young, I loved old things. LOVED them. Old books, old houses, old movies, everything. Mostly I was interested in the 19th and very early 20th century, but I loved reading about history, archaeology, Egyptology, Greek Mythology, anything that had to do with the past. Currently, I am hugely obsessed with Tudor history. I even have "Tudor Stuff." And yes, my iPhone has a Tudor Rose on the welcome screen. :-)

My daughter? She "hates" old stuff. Or so she says. She doesn't even like classical music. She is into her friends and her phone and the Internet and TV. She is interested in the Here and Now, not the How and When.

I am sad about it. Since she is my only daughter, I thought exposing her to historical things when she was young would ignite an interest. I took her to museums, antique markets, and went over Genealogy with her. We collected old books, we stopped at old churchyards where we looked at the churches and read the inscriptions on old gravestones, I told her all about Ancient civilizations (and pointed her to my many books on those subjects in our library) heck, I even took her entire Girl Scout Troop to an old local turn-of-the-century settlement where they could see what life used to be like in Pioneer times.

She seemed interested in those things. Now, she tells me, without batting an eyelash, that she "hates" History and thinks it's "dumb and boring."

To me, an amateur historian, these words hurt. I suspect the fact she's a teenager has some part in it, and I tell her I love History, and I'm sorry she doesn't share my enthusiasm. But I do worry. If we get enough kids like her, who have zero interest in the past, pretty soon we'll have a generation that truly doesn't care about History. It's a sobering thought.

Luckily, I have two sons who LOVE history. (Granted, one of them is more into "Military History" but I'm fine with that.) But, you know, I kind of wanted my daughter to be interested in it, too. :-(